>> right now i'm suffering with ptsd and c o p and i'm a cancer survivor. we need for you to understand where i'm coming from as medical cannabis patients and respect especially our veterans because we are not getting the respect we deserve. thank you. i oppose this. >> hello. my name is theresa. i'm a healer and dispensary is a place where a lot of healing goes on. you may not beware of

that. medical cannabis has helped me with this. i have been diagnosed with mental illness just at 52. it's a great way for me to have resources. i also went to a healing school and did healing work. i don't really see any part of this ordinance or legislation really doing anything. this is a sanctuary city. it's just more prejudice against medical cannabis dispensary. if you look at the block, that neighborhood is a place i frequent and it improved and there is of things that it need help with. if we are creating a vision 50 years into future as avalos is saying, i think it needs to

include healing places and i'm shocked that we are going to talk about gambling and have back doors for more alcohol. i'm sorry, i just started going back to church. it's like hello. it's like if people want to do that. there has to be a vehicle.. and later you will be apologizing to our community and i think you are doing a great job. this legislation is ridiculous. i'm sorry. >> next speaker. den, >> i have a 20 year survivor of aids. thank you. good

afternoon. my name is mark cameron. i oppose this. it doesn't fit this business. what we have here is supply and demand. if there wasn't a need nobody is going to them. willie brown, our former mayor himself said there is a starbucks on every corner because there is a customer on every corner. we should have this in our community for access to the patients. so many of them are disabled. this is impossible for me without this medication. we have an economic status in this community. when people come to spend money, more money is spent around the area. you are not seeing a crime influx in these areas. they have

guards out front so there is production in the neighborhoods. we have the whole basis of what the people need as far as recognizing that this is a dispensary as part of our medical distribution system. dispensaries, a pharmacy. it's not a restaurant. you can walk down valencia and they are restaurants after restaurants. they are all succeeded. isn't it up to the people to decide this for supply and demand? thank you. >> hello, i'm denise. i got an award for broadcasting about social justice issues. it's just from personal experiences as it drives me. two have made

cannabis illegal. congress advises against this. the law makers will not pass them. i'm losing faith in our democracy. congress is letting down these laws. we voted for prop 15 and if it passed today it would pass with more votes. this action correlated with the building boom and any capitalism in san francisco. a city that could not have been made great without working class people. there are no winners here in this legislation. now, earlier i heard about hospitals needing more beds because it seems like they are planning on people being more sick and with the medications they give to people. my mother lost her

memory due to statin drugs. i grew up reading herb cane and solving chest problems. i know they has changed for the worst. i have been here since i was born. the dispensary has improved my life. the drug laws killed my father. anyway. >> good afternoon, commissioners, my name is angie. i'm 26 plus year resident of the excels

district. i'm with the active group which is a volunteer driven community base non-profit organization. we focus on the mission street corridor between silver and again via. we support the legislation. we are concerned about a couple things. we are concerned about the parking and removal of the minimum parking requirement because we think that could impact economic via talented -- vitality of the neighborhood and we appreciate supervisor avalos taking a look at the cyber cafes and glad he's made you aware about our

concerns of those entities that appear to the gambling establishments and also concerned about the mcd, we think that 500 feet is not enough. we would like to see a thousand foot zone. just to put it in perspective, 500 feet is a block. it's a quality of life issue. all of these issues are quality of life issues for those of us who live, work and raise families in the neighborhood. thank you very much. >> next speaker, please. >> good afternoon. my name is tom burn hooim. i'm going to repeat what i heard earlier. i want to thank mr. avalos for

his concern about the liquor store. liquor stores do seem to cause trouble in the community, loitering, panhandling and problems with liquor stores. a lot of people complain about the cannabis clubs and having personally being there. i have been to various cannabis clubs and it's a safe haven. the security guards, i'm going into a personal problem. on 8th and mission i was mugged and attempt to have my laptop taken. security guards came to my rescue and prevented me from being mugged. this is an example of how the community has been improved. i don't think that can -- cannabis

clubs are a problem. i'm a veteran. there is not number cannabis clubs for the veterans. there is 20,000 homeless veterans in the city that don't have access to the cannabis club. thank you for your time. >> let me call a couple more names. jerry goodman, ken liam a, nicholas somales. >> hello. my name is john martinly. i'm here to speak

against this ordinance and we are sanctuary city, we need to free up more space and access to the people who really need it who are at as disadvantage and this is really about not making things monopoly where people only can afford to do business in the medical cannabis field and have connections would be favored. contrary to what supervisor avalos stated, i have lived in this city for 15 plus years and there are many neighborhoods where there are similar restaurants, metro pcs, wall

green's, starbucks that are all clustered. they may not be exactly 500 feet together, but you can take less than a 5 minute walk down market and be within reach of 4 walgreen's. i walk fast, but still. and the metro pcs stores and starbucks they are all crowded together but it's because they are needed. they are used. the medical cannabis population is great. we always bring more safety to the neighborhood that we open up in. it's a hundred percent documented proof. don't let any people say we hurt their neighborhood. we have always helped. it's the greatest neighborhood we've ever been in. thank you. >> excuse me, folks. you can refrain from the applause. thank you. >> my name is oscar. i belong

to access of love. i'm a native of san francisco. i was born in excels ori -- excelsior. i'm opposed to this. it would never work with excelsior merchants. i feel my rights have been violated because some dispensaries are non-profit and me that is low income depend on

these non-profit organizations regards to a dispensaries that makes millions of dollars. it really helps me as a veteran. i like to believe that i served my country we may and hopefully my politicians can serve me in return. thank you. >> good afternoon, my name is jerry goodman. i'm a member of access of love. i wasn't born here but i have lived here 45 years of my life. i went to balboa high which the around the corner from where they want to put up the dispensary. by me knowing that area pretty good, there is an alcohol store at

least 3 houses in between each one going down all the way down mission street. so, whereas when i was a kid, all did you was go in there and just at the age of 18 and 17 you can go and buy alcohol without your id. now we are putting up dispensaries where we have security guards at these dispensaries which would help alleviate some of the madness in these areas. by all rights the addition doesn't add up. why would you want to make a place that could be safer worse off by putting some cyber cafes

where people are gambling. can't you see it? i see it clearly, thank you. >> hello, my name is kenneth leman. i'm here to talk about how medical marijuana has kept me alive for 4 years and to have our dispensaries close down and have to go to other areas which is far way for some of us who have to use wheelchairs and can't get around. it not right. we need more dispensaries. 500 feet is too far to keep the dispensaries apart. i would like to say no on restrictive use. >> good afternoon commissioners. i have with the improvement association. our border is right where two of

the mcd's were approved. i think we are unique because we did not vote to fight having mcd's in our neighborhood. we voted to try to get along with them. one of the reasons this density rule is on this legislation is because my association listened to you last year when you asked for this kind of a tool and we went to the supervisor and we've been pushing for it. however we are not asking for 500 feet. we are happy with 250 feet because we would like to compromise with the community and have everyone's needs served as long as it doesn't hurt others. we would like to see a compromise otherwise we support supervisor avalos and we thank him. >> thank you for this opportunity. my name is tim bolt. i'm a member of the

largest organization of doctors. we strongly oppose a 500 foot buffer in the outer mission or instituting a conditional use permit or restricting safe access at all in san francisco, the birthplace of medical dispensaries. if the planning commission places additional restrictions the establishment of mcd's in one district, they should look at opening up space at others. if mr. avalos wants to prevent clustering, then the board should consider opening up more space throughout the city as well. this action is reactionary. the worry of residents not used to have been

cannabis dispensaries in their neighborhoods is natural, but the reality is different than their fears. research conducted by ucla concludes that regulated dispensaries reduce crime and increase public safety. on top of that, access is recovering from a federal crack down last year where eight of our dispensaries are closed. we don't need to restrict these anymore. thank you. >> my name is steven crane and i'm a disabled person living in san francisco. i'm really appalled at what i heard before about avalos saying this is criminal. i think it's disastrous. if he wants to do that, he should go to the

police department for gambling and not clustering mcd's. this is not the first time this thing has been run by here. i think it's voted down the last time. i don't think that this is necessary. i think it's a real big waste of your time. i think there is a lot better things we can be doing with our times instead of talking about 250 feet. the lady who said a block or two is not far enough. i'm handicapped, but a block is more than i can make it. i saw you whisk away real fast. i don't. keep that in mind. each person has their own individual reasons why they need these things. i'm one of them and i'm here to tell you. thank you very much. >> are you ready? come on up.

>> mel flores, charles, jonathan drier, frank, there you go. you are here. penny graham, alex, michael gold mar and steven curry. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is karen, a cannabis user. i also helped write article 3 for the passage. the fact is and i think it was poisoned -- pointed out. it requires that new mcd's obtain a land use

permit and undergo a hearing before this commission. it requires they are off limits to medical dispensaries. if these dispensaries get out of line there is a way to deal with them. and they will be dealt with. but this action is unnecessary because the san francisco weekly resorts when they recently asked for recent problems of the dispensaries. a grand total of 11 complaints had been issued against dispensaries in a five year period. there is more complaints in a fast food express in one month than all the cannabis dispensaries in a five year period. these could not be verified by the department of health. it's premature of the three dispensaries that this

department approved, only one is in business. much of the traffic is going to dissipate once the facility is opened. as far as the discretional review goes, which was allow the committee to speak on the discretional review. if we now start reversing this and planning commissions and suffer from the board, i think you are setting a very dangerous precedent for the city in the fact that we are a hub. 26 isn't enough. >> good afternoon. my name is mel flores. i'm a 25 plus year resident of the excelsior. i'm a vice-president of the association and on behalf of

that organization we have a letter that we have addressed to supervisor avalos. it says we would like to thank you to explain the legislation introduced by you. we appreciate being part of the decision making process. our membership voted unanimously to submit this letter with our views with regard to the legislation. while we understand the need and prove of the benefits, there are a few changes we feel are necessary to the proposed legislation prior to approval. we are unhappy with the proposed changes to the current requirement of the planning code regarding off street parking. specifically this section amending the planning code for commercial use is not required. we feel the wording should be stricken with the legislation and the current parking requirements be

maintained. our primary concern is for the conservation of the neighborhoods character and recognition of conservation of this character is consistent with section 101.1 and is a stated priority of the master plan. the neighborhood is not adequate to prevent transit by over crowding by munis. as you are aware the e dia has been active to reducing parking problems and we have a park the summit attended by neighbors. additionally the legislation states the district is moving. >> is it not three minutes? it's 2 minutes. >> if you have any notes that you are welcome to submit, you are welcome to do that. thank you very much.

all right. good afternoon. my name is jonathan dire. i'm a proud member of access of love. i have been a member of access of love for 2 years. i'm in opposition of this proposal. first i have a lot of respect for all of our politicians. but what we have here unfortunately a lot of times in politics, you basically have a failure of use of the existing laws. the people here that were may believe part of it before you, they put a lot of time in making up these rules and regulations and people come up here and they have this and this, but there are already rules and obligation for that. you have an obligation to use these rules. i have been a member of access for a number of years and i have been to a lot of hearings about mcd's and

we need statistical facts and all the -- statistical facts have been in favor of this. i have not heard anything to the contrary of this. all mcd's have been a great thing for the communities. they help the community and they are just really good to have around. that's all i have got to say. >> next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, i hope you are all having a great day today. supporting the american's for safe access. i oppose this because it's not a sense bell approach to make

society better. dispensaries contribute to the california's economy. i would like to repeat what one member said, the residents not used to having the medical dispensaries is natural. they make wonderful neighbors because they reduce crime and increase public safety. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you so much. i feel the love here. i'm frank mallanero. i have seen a beer garden come up across the street from a playground. toddlers are being exposed to this. nobody gives a care. i

started working at a healer in the aids community. not like in the movies. people don't just die and take a breath. it's a long arduous painful death. i was at the hospital last week and a man dying from tobacco use. i was in insult when this supervisor prepared the cannabis. i'm sick to my stomach of what i have heard. that just i quit drinking. my liver is tumor free. i have to be outlawed. i have worked with -- it's controllable. cannabis, the pharmaceutical